Five events that will make great additions to your Vancouver Writers Fest plan
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A Grand Opening: Finding Joy Amid Turmoil will have a handful of bold-type literary names take to the Playhouse Theatre stage on Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. and share what joy means to them.
“It has been a challenging year globally, and even at home, for people here struggling with the cost of living and housing and all the different things we deal with on a daily basis. So this really seemed like a good theme,” said Leslie Hurtig, artistic director of VWF. “We have so many rich authors to pull from and to hear their perspectives on where they are able to find moments of joy in these times, I think, will be a balm, a very helpful thing to hear.”
Hurtig said when she approached the authors with the theme the response was positive.
“Everybody signed on right away. I think this is a very human thing to want to speak to, the positives in our lives alongside the dark,” said Hurtig.
The festival, which runs until Oct. 27, includes 85 events and welcomes 120 international and local writers to Granville Island.
Thúy, who has sold more than 850,000 books (translated into 31 languages) and is a Governor General’s Award winner, is this year’s guest curator. She explained the importance of making time for caring and open interactions as key to setting a foundation of hope, and as a much-needed redirection from internet rabbit holes of doom.
“Time is so calculated that we lose our ability to listen. Each meeting must be efficient, with a precise objective to achieve,” said Thúy. “Conversations are rarely only exchanges or discussions. I believe that if we talked to each other to get to know and understand each other, we’d be already walking into the light rather than the darkness. It is possible.”
While VWF is packed with writers talking about their books and what inspires them, it is also a place for those writers to engage in conversations with other writers. It’s these meetings of the minds that remind participants of the importance of hearing another person — which is lost in the din of social media rage farming and finger pointing.
“At the heart of the programming this year is the importance of listening to one another and the importance of dialogue and conversation,” said Hurtig.
“What does that mean? That means listening. And that means engaging in conversations that make us uncomfortable, but might bring us through to a new understanding of a topic.
“The reason this bubbled to the surface as a theme, not only because I believe it’s what’s needed in society right now, but there are some really important books coming out that talk exactly about this,” said Hurtig, pointing to Ian Williams’ Massey lecture title: What I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversations in our Time, Carol Off’s At a Loss for Words: conversations in the Age of Rage, and Raja G. Khouri and Jeffrey Wilkinson’s The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know About Each Other.
All authors Hurtig mentioned will be doing multiple events at VWF.
Ann Cleeves in Conversation: The Alma Lee Opening Night Event
When and where: Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m., Granville Island Stage
One of the great joys of festivals is a chance to hear some of the best in the game talk about their latest work and their process. English prose powerhouse Ann Cleeves is a giant in the crime-thriller genre. The creator of the Vera Stanhope series, which was made into the popular U.K. TV series starring Brenda Blethyn as the detective chief inspector Vera Stanhope, will be on hand to talk about her latest book, The Dark Wives, and marrying social commentary with flat-out entertaining prose.
Science and Fiction
When and where: Oct. 25, 1 p.m. Performance Works
When a chunk of the population is choosing fiction over science, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers (Playground) and James Bradley (Deep Water) come together on stage with Canadian author Claudia Casper to discuss how science inspires and works within their prose.
Roddy Doyle: In Conversation
When and where: Oct. 26, 10:30 a.m., Performance Works
The Wall Between
When and where: Oct. 27, 11 a.m., The Nest
At this timely event, human rights advocate and founding president of the Canadian Arab Institute, Raja G. Khouri, will host a screening of a pre-recorded conversation with Jewish educator, researcher and facilitator Jeffrey Wilkinson, with whom Khouri co-wrote the book The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know About Each Other. Khouri will answer audience questions after the screening of the interview.
Chiller Thrillers
When and where: Oct. 27, 2 p.m., Waterfront Theatre
The fall season just screams for hunkering down with a page-turner of a thriller. This event brings together bestselling thriller writers Emiko Jean (The Return of Ellie Black), Roz Nay (The Offing) and Drew Hayden Taylor (Cold) to talk about their work — and what gets their heart racing.